Sarah McLachlan Presents Elegant Show At MGM Grand

July 08, 2012|By THOMAS KINTNER Special to the Courant, The Hartford Courant

Sarah McLachlan specializes in transforming sad contemplations into enticing packages by dressing up emotionally charged ruminations in ornate, highly decorative pop, a process that makes her a sort of Martha Stewart of melancholy. Her performance Saturday night at the Foxwoods Resort Casino’s MGM Grand Theater in Mashantucket presented her passion-rich material at its best, augmenting her regular band with a full orchestra that added heft and sparkle to her songs’ natural appeals.

McLachlan opened with “Building a Mystery,”wirh f her four-piece support group gilded by orchestral support that was never overpowering, and left ample space for McLachlan’s ornamental vocalizations. With McLachlan on piano, her band served primarily as a choir to add vocal depth to “Answer,” and then forged a plush bed of soft rock as the backbone of the organ-draped “I Will Remember You.”

McLachlan’s melodically alluring falsetto was as high as the mood of “Loving You Is Easy,” but if that tune was an atypically perky piece of her catalog, it was hardly alone in embracing its sentiment. Even McLachlan’s darkest introspections were framed as celebrations in tunes that make their aches palatable, whether the pristine fluidity that dressed the cool flow of “Fallen” or the simple attractiveness with which the sad expectations of “Hold On” were rendered.

McLachlan finessed lyrics with delicate urgency to navigate the plush swell of “World on Fire,” and stitched the high end of her range to the deliberate meditation “Rivers of Love,” light piano touches nestled into its roomy backdrop. The orchestra got a longer break than the band in the two-set show, as McLachlan kicked off the second half with just her core group in a sweet, fragile-sounding “Good Enough” to which she chipped in acoustic guitar.

McLachlan’s indulgence of her band included the rather unusual step of allowing her backup vocalist/guitarist Melissa McLelland and guitarist Luke Doucet to sing a couple of their own songs with McLachlan along on piano and harmonies only; admirable as gestures go, but neither was ever in jeopardy of stealing the show. The grander presentation afforded by her orchestra paid off in the comely sweep of “Adia,” and allowed a fresh spin on “Sweet Surrender,” that boiled the song down to somber simplicity, almost a pop music hymn.

McLachlan’s falsetto got a lively, lovely workout as she ladled it in a string of punctuating pieces over the graceful churn of “Fear.” Her tone was cool but sharp as she closed on all cylinders with the grabby, rock-leaning “Possession.”

A three-song encore was considerably more downbeat, beginning with the lush trickle of “Bring on the Wonder.” McLachlan was a font of unerring vocal elegance as the slender “Angel” coalesced around her trickling piano and a silky bed of strings, and the evening’s dessert was a guilt-free indulgence, as she closed the 100-minute show by spooning uncomplicated affection from the lustrous bounce of “Ice Cream” with an abundance of easygoing charm.